The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1887-06-03
EVILS OF CORPORATIONS.

EVILS OF CORPORATIONS.
The objections which can be urged
against corporate undertakings are in
many respects quite similar to those
which make against enterprises of
public bodies like states and municip-
alities.
The management is apt to be waste,
full, and, still worse, inefficient. Tie
owners of the property must select del
not animated to the same extent as the
private business man by that active,
energetic principle of self-interest to
promote the permanent Welfare of the
business intrusted to them. Only a
portion of the property, and sometimes
small portion, belongs to the mana
gers. Any loss due to mismanage-
ment falls only in part on them, ard
even bankruptcy of the corporation
fails to ruin them, owing to the fact
that liability is limited to the amount
of investment. Added to. this is the
fact that it is often to the interest of
those who control corporations to
bankrupt them. Speculative purposes
are thus subseryed, and property is
often bought at auction sale by inside
rings at greatly reduced rates.
Again, the management of corpora
tons, If honest, is necessarily slow and
cumbersome. Directors must in some
things act according to the expressed
will of all the body of stockholders,
which meets only at intervals of
months, anu often has very imper-
feet understanding of the business in
hand. Even when nearly everything
is intrusted to the board of directors,
one has all the difficulties inseparably
connected with boards. 1t is impossi-
BILE that there should be that quick,
alert action, that seizure of advantages
offered only for moment, of which
an ordinary private business man, ac-
countable to no one, avails himself.
All these disadvantages are lllustra-
ted most wildly in American railway
history. There can be no doubt that
our railways have cost our railway
corporations twice what should have
been paid for them, and bankruptcies
and foreclosures are events of daily oc-
currence.
In his "Outlines of Lectures upon
Political Economy" prepared for the
use of his students, Professor Henry
G. Adams summarizes in parallel col
umns the facts concerning the organi-
zation of business on private basis
and on a corporate basis. 1t is stated
that one of the advantages of the cor
porate basis is that the moral element
is at its minimum, whereas it is at its
maximum in business organized on the
private basis. t~
This may seem startling, but it is,
with certain qualifications, true. Cor
porations are impersonal RESPONSE
bility is, divided, control is-vdivided,
and each one concerned in corporate
enterprises feels that he cannot be held
personally responsible for its immoral
conduct. Thus we witness. on the. one
hand public corruption fostered by
corporations as it.neyer has been fos-
tered by strictly private enterprises,i
and on the other a general oppression
OF labor whenever the temptation
thereto has been great An instance
may be found in the case ofstreet-car
companies. Good and humane men
have been interested in them, but they
all Cypress their employees if opportun-
ity is offered. The working day, where
it is not limited by strong combina-
tons, .as,in New York, or. by law, as
in Maryland, is. so--long. as to- ruin
health, shorten life, and for street-car
employees destroy any sound condition
of that institution which'is at once the
pillar of the state and the foundation
OF our civilization, the family. have
searched in the great cities of this
country for even one exception to
prove the rule, but have not as yet
found it.
Finally, corporate aceumulations of
capitalare so limitlcsss that practical
monopolics become possible, and in
some Instances even now exist. I'm
these. cases there is as severe oppres-
sion Of the general public as either
dare be attempted or as will prove
profitable. And the methods of cor
porations in competition with individ-
ual enterprises in industry and COM
merce are so unscrupulous, owing to
the absence of the moral element, that
they have degraded the conscience of
the business community. Agents of a
great corporation came to o. private
business man in Baltimore and said,
1--WE want your business;. sell out to
us, or we will ruin YOU" This he did,
and is-now in,the employ of rther corr
porotion. -chafng under stheyslAvery-
which affords hima livelihood. This
corporation pursues' similar methods
everywhere. - Professor Richard z.
Ely IN Harper's Magazine. 81
l.